[jddil]

Got to say the fact that you thought someone leaving a 1 star review on a service you don't own, google, was worth you escalating it to a real person tells me these companies are doing the right thing. And shaming the CEOs when you made the choice to use their product is a bit silly and you come off as entitled, not righteous.

How do we or google know if he was disgruntled vs fired, how do we know if he didn't come in as a customer after he was fired and was treated like shit?

I'm imagining the situation where in your world where every business who got a bad review would be calling google. Imagine the number of bullshit calls they would get? And how much all of us would have to pay to support that?

If you want a real person to help you, pay for it. Plenty of companies are willing to sell you a service contract, even google, if you're willing to pay.

Vote with your dollars (even if the original poster preemptively tried to say why that won't work ... it's the ONLY thing that ever has in my experience)

[slfnflctd]

The problem is that Google has become so pervasive that even if you don't initiate any contact with them or use any of their products/services, a bad review on Google can have a substantially negative effect on your business. It's a real problem.

I was recently in charge of hiring various contractors for several repairs needed on a house being prepped for sale, and in almost every case, clearly non-technically-inclined people were practically begging me to leave them a positive Google review. I don't think they would've been doing that if they hadn't experienced a direct impact on their business from those reviews in some way, and I also don't think they would've chosen this situation voluntarily.

[dforrestwilson]

^ This times 1 million.

Per Google's own policy employees, present or former, are not permitted to leave reviews of businesses at which they work or did work. For obvious reasons.

Google ratings impact our search rankings directly.

Read the policy before you start casting aspersions about the justness of an employee review. If Google wants to change that policy, fine. But as things sit they are failing to enforce their stated legal guidelines.

It is also worth noting that Google does not permit reviews of its own HQ. Why not open the floodgates for Google employee reviews on Google if you believe that it should be OK?

[notriddle]

> The problem is that Google has become so pervasive that even if you don't initiate any contact with them or use any of their products/services, a bad review on Google can have a substantially negative effect on your business. It's a real problem.

If this is true, it's because your would-be customers listen to what Google says. If people trust them, it's probably because they are the least bad option for gathering information on a lot of companies.

[bb123]

I don't think you understand the impact that negative Google reviews can have on a small business. You are totally beholden to them.

[RobertRoberts]

> ...when you made the choice to use their product...

Where did the poster say/claim this? Your entire argument is based on if they are a user of Google services or not?